Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1887-11-16
CHEAP OIL PAINTINGS.
MANUFACTURING BUCKEYES" AND
"PoT BOILERS"

ings at the Rate OF Thousand
Week-Rapid Use OF the Stencil Plate. |
The Results.
The law prohibiting the sale of pictures
by artificial light was passed to prevent
the public from being imposed upon by
the exhibition of inferior works under cir
calculated to deceive the
buyer. Great numbers of what the sales
men call genuine oil paintings" have
been put upon the market in many ways
of late years, and although the sale has
recently fallen off somewhat, the manu-
facture of them is still considerable
branch of industry. The facilities for
their production are ample and the pro-
cesses by which they are furnished at so
low q price are ingenious. There are two
kinds of cheap pictures in oil; those pro-
duced in the studios by artists of various
degrees of ability, and those manufactured
in establishments devoted to the business
ON O large scale, which turn out dupli-
Gates Of an oil painting just as similar
concerns in other branches Of industry
turn out hats, coats and shoes Paintings
of the first named class are called 'pob
boilers" from their being as q rule thrown
off by artists to furnish means to keep
the pot boiling"
A DEGREE OF MERIT.
Such works, although generally show
ING evidences of the haste with which they
ara painted, often possess certain degree
of merit, They IRE mostly sold in the
auction rooms in the largo cities, and
many artists, in the absence OF more luv
crative employment, find their CHIEF
source of support by means of this class
of work. A clever artist can paint toll
erably attractive canvas in compare
lively short time, and although he may
put into it little of the imagination and
noetry and careful thought which he
would bestow upon a work for one OF the
regular exhibitions Of the season, his
technical facility will enable him to make
a salable picture of it. The visitor to the
smaller auction rooms and art stores will
often find ON exhibition pot boilers from
the studios of well known artists, These
have been gathered by the picture dealers,
who are we'll acquainted with the sources
of supply and with the worth of ready
money to the impecunious artist. Some.
times the pictures are sold on account OF
the painter: sometimes they have been
bought outright at q low rate by the
auctioneer, who offers them at his picture
sales until a buyer is found who will pay
him q profit.
What are technically known as chuck
eyes'' are works of q different class.
These are produced In great numbers at
establishments in several Of the large
cities. Girls who have been trained to
the degree of mechanical skill necessary
for making copy of the picture before
them, or rather that part Of it which il
given them to duplicate, show remarka-
Bile facility in accomplishing their task.
In some of the workshops the walls are
covered with strips of canvas, upon which
the copyists are busily at work. One
paints the sky and the distant effects; an
other follows with the foreground; an
other paints the figures, and still another
finishes the picture. The work is done
with great rapidity, but the result, as
might be expected, is not pleasing to an
artistic eye. Yet the facility attained by
constant practice is such that the rude
copies of landscape thus produced bear a
sufficient resemblance to the original tC
give them a market value as pictures.
One of the largest manufactures Of
cheap paintings in this country is in New
York. A, three story building is devoted
to the business and when the demand
was at it's height, few years ago, nearly
1000 pictures a week were turned out
Some Of the processes employed are pc
culiar to these manufacturers, and the
upper story, which is the ''studio," OF
workshop, is carefully guarded against in
trusion. The doors are kept locked, ant
no one except those employed in tho es
Establishment is allowed to enter.
,E WORK OF THE STUDIO"
The first step in the production Of thu
brilliant landscape in gilt frame which
is to be the subject of the auctioneer o.
the picture peddler is the preparation o.
the canvas. This is done by means of /
machine which coats long strip of cot
ton cloth with O mixture of glue anC
whiting and gives to it something of thu
f1rmness and appearance of canvas. TIL,
cloth is then thoroughly dried and is thel
ready for the stretcher or inner frame
The stretchers are produced by an ingeni
Gus machine, which shapes, joins ant
fastens them with great rapidity, and by 1
third machine, which is tended by small
boy Of artistic proclvities, the cloth il
quickly fastened upon the stretcher ant
made ready for the coming landscape
Next comes the work of the 'istudio.
There one finds a line Of girls, their dresse
splashed with paint, and their general ap
pearance in other respects quite in con
trast with the young women at the Ar
Students league or tho ideal woman art
list in a well appointed studio. On thu
walls, within easy reach, hang stencils o
various patterns which the girls hav
learned to use with great rapidity
The process employed is similar to wha
is known as Theorem painting, and als'
as Poonah or Oriental painting. BY thu
use of a kind of stencil the outlines ant
principal figures in the landscape are on
after another put upon the cloth, and tn,
picture then passes into the hands of
more advanced painter for completion
A few skillful touches with her brusl
supply the deficiencies left by the use o
the stencil, and after q plentiful suppl.
Of varnish and q suitable exposure in tn
drying room, the picture is ready fo
market. The frames are made by ma
chinery in the story below the Studio.
They are much thinner than they appea
to BE- but, although so unsubstantial, ar,
quite ornamental in design, and afte
being covered with q metallic preparation
known to the trade as sDutch metal" O.
Clutch gilt" which closely resemble
gold leaf, but has not particle of gold il
its composition, they are dazzling enough
to satisfy the most exacting purchaser
So it will be seen that in these "genuin
oil paintings the oil which is used i
about the only thing TO Justify tho term
Little else Is genuine. The canvas i
cotton cloth, smeared with glue and whit
ing; the frame, apparently so substantial
is q mere shell, and the shining gliding
has no gold about it. Yet, like othe
Il slfams, the sham oil painting has found ;
great many admirers. York Mai
| and Express,
The Poor In Mexico.
i A Mexican paper says the condition o